We owe much to those who have done us this service from the beginning, and they have herein served God, as well as obliged the world. For it always has been, and ever is like to be a grateful thing to mankind, to be informed of the rise and growth of provinces, and of the sufferings of their feeble infant state. From the days of Moses, who wrote the first history, the beginning of the world, and of Israel, the wise and pious among men have scarcely known a more sacred pleasure, nor found a more profitable entertainment, than in tracing the footsteps and windings of Divine Providence, in the planting of colonies and churches, here and there, through the earth.
